We aimed to identify mothers at risk for poorer maternal mental health (MMH) one month post-partum and to determine changes in MMH over four years in relation to birth circumstances (singleton/twins, full-term/pre-term infant/s, first/non-first child), internal resources (adult attachment styles), and external resources (marital quality and maternal grandmother's support) at one month post-partum. The mediating effects of external resources were also investigated. Questionnaires were completed between 2001 and 2012 by 561 Israeli mothers...

BACKGROUND: Prematurity carries a high risk of mortality and sequelae, altering the bonding process and leading to repercussions in terms of attachment. OBJECTIVE: To assess the type of attachment in children under 32weeks' gestational age (GA) or below 1500g, in hospitals where development-centred care has been implemented and to study the association between various types of attachment and certain neonatal and family characteristics. METHOD: Children <1500g or <32weeks GA who were born or admitted before 48h of life to one of two hospitals in Madrid between January and December 2012 were candidates for the study...

BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are a major public health challenges, and strategies of early prevention are needed. Effective prevention depends on feasible and validated measures of screening and intervention. Previous research has demonstrated potentials for infant mental health screening by community health nurses (CHN) in existing service settings in Denmark. This study was conducted to describe the development of a service setting based measure to screen for infant mental health problems, to investigate problems identified by the measure and assess the validity and feasibility in existing public health settings...

Although contemporary psychoanalysis is split into different schools and traditions, there is growing support for some of the main tenets of contemporary psychodynamic thinking from attachment theory, infant research, developmental psychopathology, new models of motivation, the neuroscience of emotions and emotional regulation, and the discovery of different implicit and explicit memory systems. These tenets, which psychodynamic clinicians of all stripes encounter in their daily work with clients, are the following: (1) that large footprints are left over from infancy and childhood which involved insensitive, intrusive, frightening, or shaming care; (2) the carryover of these relational experiences into adulthood are expressed as unconscious expectations and attributions we make of others (transference and countertransference; (3) defensive processes and emotional regulation and deregulatory patterns develop to cope with these unhealthy relations...

BACKGROUND: Expectant parents develop varying degrees of emotional affiliation with the unborn child. Interventions supporting this relationship may be beneficial given its link to maternal health behaviour during pregnancy, as well as the parental-infant bond after birth. AIM: To identify and describe the effects of programmes and strategies that have addressed the parental-fetal relationship. METHOD: English-language primary studies, published between 2005-2015, were identified and their methodological quality was assessed...

Preterm birth remains a major contributor to infant mortality and morbidity including neurodevelopmental delay and childhood disability. Mothers experiencing a preterm birth are at risk for maternal mental health issues, inclusive of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which may affect mother-infant attachment and infant development. Depression and PTSD, frequently comorbid, following preterm birth and relationships between these symptoms, maternal-infant attachment, and infant development are reviewed...

BACKGROUND: Infant mental health is a significant public health issue as early adversity and exposure to early childhood stress are significant risk factors that may have detrimental long-term developmental consequences for the affected children. Negative outcomes are seen on a range of areas such as physical and mental health, educational and labor market success, social network and establishing of family. Secure attachment is associated with optimal outcomes in all developmental domains in childhood, and both insecure and disorganized attachment are associated with a range of later problems and psychopathologies...

Several studies have demonstrated that women show a greater interest for social information and empathic attitude than men. This article reviews studies on sex differences in the brain, with particular reference to how males and females process faces and facial expressions, social interactions, pain of others, infant faces, faces in things (pareidolia phenomenon), opposite-sex faces, humans vs. landscapes, incongruent behavior, motor actions, biological motion, erotic pictures, and emotional information. Sex differences in oxytocin-based attachment response and emotional memory are also mentioned...

Parental mentalizing - the parent's ability to envision the child's mental states (such as desires, thoughts, or wishes) - has been argued to underlie a parent's ability to respond sensitively to their child's emotional needs, and thereby promote advantageous cognitive and socio-emotional development. Mentalizing is typically operationalized in terms of how parents talk to or about their infants. This work extends research on mentalizing by operationalizing parental mentalizing exclusively in terms of nonverbal, bodily based, interactive behavior, namely parental embodied mentalizing(PEM)...

In this paper, we examine the associations between specific candidate genes (DRD2, DRD4, COMT, biallelic and tri-allelic 5HTTLPR, and OXTR) and infant attachment outcomes as main effects and in conjunction with maternal sensitivity. The sample included 200 infants (97 European American, 94 African-American, and 9 biracial) and their mothers. Maternal sensitivity and overtly negative maternal behavior were observed when infants were 6 months and 1 year old in distress-eliciting contexts, attachment was assessed via the Strange Situation at age 1, and DNA samples were collected when children were 2 years old...

The present study examined observations of parenting quality (mothers' emotional availability - EA) during infant bedtimes at 4 points across the infants' first year, assessing relations between levels and trajectories of EA and infant attachment at 12 months and the role of infant temperament in moderating these associations. The sample (N = 128) was predominantly Euro-American (82.5%) and at low socioeconomic risk. Latent growth curve modeling with latent basis coefficients indicated substantial individual differences in initial levels and slopes in EA trajectories across the first year...

OBJECTIVES: Attachment style refers to a systematic pattern of emotions, behaviors, and expectations that people have for how others will respond in relationships. Extensive evidence has documented the importance of attachment security in infants, children, adolescents, and adults, but the effects of attachment among exclusively older adult populations have received less attention. The present study explored the relationships between attachment style in late adulthood and eudaimonic well-being, which refers to a life replete with meaning, productive activity, and striving to reach one's potential...

BACKGROUND: Effective breastfeeding is a function of the proper positioning of mother and baby and attachment of child to the mother's breast. Positioning of the baby's body is important for good attachment and successful breastfeeding. The study was planned to assess mother-infant pair latch on position and its impact on health status of the child. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was community-based cross-sectional study conducted among 1267 children between age group of 0-24 months in the urban and rural field practice areas of the Department of Community Medicine, Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana...

BACKGROUND: The early relationships between infant and care takers are significant and the emotional interactions of these relationships play an important role in forming personality and adulthood relationships. OBJECTIVES: The current study aimed to investigate the relationship of attachment styles (AS) and emotional intelligence (EI) with marital satisfaction (MS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional research, 450 married people (226 male, 224 female) were selected using multistage sampling method in Mashhad, Iran, in 2011...

What an animal needs to learn to survive is altered dramatically as they change from dependence on the parent for protection to independence and reliance on self-defense. This transition occurs in most altricial animals, but our understanding of the behavioral neurobiology has mostly relied on the infant rat. The transformation from dependence to independence occurs over three weeks in pups and is accompanied by complex changes in responses to both natural and learned threats and the supporting neural circuitry...

Untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders can result in impaired maternal-infant interactions. Pediatricians have a unique opportunity to identify and support mothers with mood and anxiety disorders. A parenting intervention, Circle of Security, was delivered in a pediatric clinic targeting women with mood and anxiety disorders. A qualitative assessment of the program's acceptability, participant engagement, and general experiences was conducted. Data collection included medical record abstraction, semistructured psychiatric diagnostic interviews, and semistructured questionnaires...

This paper reports on a quantitative evaluation of a group-based programme designed to promote parent-infant attachment and child development. Whilst group-based parenting programmes are recommended for treating and preventing conduct disorder in older children, there is, as yet, little evidence as to whether they have a positive effect on very young children and their carers'. Recent UK Government initiatives to support families and improve parenting skills in the first 2 years of children's lives have increased the demand for the delivery and evaluation of community-based programmes...

Diverse studies have demonstrated the importance of monitoring breathing rate (BR). Commonly, changes in BR are one of the earliest and major markers of serious complications/illness. However, it is frequently neglected due to limitations of clinically established measurement techniques, which require attachment of sensors. The employment of adhesive pads or thoracic belts in preterm infants as well as in traumatized or burned patients is an additional paramount issue. The present paper proposes a new robust approach, based on data fusion, to remotely monitor BR using infrared thermography (IRT)...